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Detroit Free Press, MI
Aug 26 2007
Hauling fuel helps Atlas get stronger
Gas station supplier thrives on energy and drive
August 26, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
No matter what the state of the economy, or whatever state you call
home, there is always some job that most people refuse to do because
it's too menial or too difficult. Or some task too small or
tangential for the big brains at the giant sophisticated corporations
to bother with.
Sam Simon built a billion-dollar business at Atlas Oil Co. by doing
things that other people and other companies didn't want to do, or do
well, or do anytime of day or night.
Simon, 43, employs 172 people today, up from 80 five years ago, and
will add another 40 or 50 this year. He plans to acquire two
businesses in west Michigan before yearend. And he expects his sales
to top $5 billion by 2015.
Everything Atlas Oil does serves one goal -- moving more gallons of
gasoline, heating oil and other petroleum products. Simon's team buys
and sells real estate, operates a huge truck fleet of more than 100
vehicles, builds gas stations, answers phones with human beings 24
hours a day, seven days a week, all in the service of that one goal.
Moving gallons.
Giant oil companies like ExxonMobil or British Petroleum want to do
only two things -- take oil out of the ground and then refine it --
Simon said in an interview at Atlas headquarters on Ecorse Road in
Taylor.
Everything else is a hassle to the oil giants. That's why none except
Speedway owns its own gas stations in metro Detroit anymore. It's why
companies with big truck fleets like FedEx and Pepsico like dealing
with Atlas, a wholesaler, because Simon and his crew move fast, 24/7,
in any conditions to keep customers supplied with fuel.
On the night before I interviewed Simon, he was e-mailing with his
top lieutenants, Mike Evans and Bob Kenyon until 10:30 p.m., tracking
reports on Hurricane Dean, on the lookout for possible supply
disruptions -- they didn't happen, fortunately -- to customers
overnight.
The son of an Armenian shoe salesman who fled Baghdad in 1973 as
Saddam Hussein rose to power, Simon was 9 years old when his family
landed in Detroit, sleeping on mattresses donated by a local church,
living in the basement of a family on Detroit's east side.
His father took what has become a time-honored entrepreneurial path
for many a Detroit immigrant. He operated and ultimately owned a gas
station, and then multiple gas stations. Sam worked in the family
business from an early age.
"When I was 16," he said, "I was managing 21 people."
At age 21, in 1985, Simon set off on a new path. He bought a Mack
truck and was delivering diesel fuel to 10 or 12 gas stations.
Atlas Oil was born. He chose the name because it conveyed strength
and started with the letter "A," thus being one of the first listings
in the Yellow Pages. He put the distinctive blue-and-orange paint job
on the first truck.
The mission, from day one, was to grow and keep growing. "Grow or
go," Simon says, over and over.
Another core belief: Go first class with everything. Don't skimp. "I
never saw a business grow by cost-cutting," he said. "I hire the best
people, give them the right tools and let them loose. We pay people
more than our competitors, we have better trucks, better systems."
Atlas has grown both organically and by acquisition.
Simon now supplies fuel to more than 300 gas stations in Michigan,
Ohio and Indiana, many of which were built, leased and sold by Simon
to what he calls the ideal operators -- "new Americans, they hustle,
their whole family works in the store, 18 or 20 hours a day." The
first stations were acquired and renovated at the behest of former
Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, who asked Simon in 1987 if he could do
something with two boarded-up stations.
In recent years, Atlas accelerated its growth by purchasing other
wholesalers to expand its geographic reach, such as B&R Oil Co. of
South Bend, Ind. ($135 million in sales), and Seaway Fuels Trucking
of Toledo ($160 million).
Atlas is in the process of opening an office in Houston. It also has
operations in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kentucky.
"We never sleep," said Bob Kenyon, 35, Atlas' vice president of sales
and marketing who joined the firm 10 years ago after stints with
Speedway and Clark Refining.
Michael Evans, 41, executive vice president for business development,
joined Atlas from EDS 11 years ago and has been the point man on
major acquisitions. Simon's "energy, drive and creativity is what
drew me to Atlas and his integrity and approach is what has kept me
here," Evans said.
Simon shrugs off the accolades, assessing himself as a simple guy who
works hard.
"I didn't know anything about the oil business," he said, with just a
trace of the accent that remains from his boyhood in the Middle East.
"There are a lot of book-smart people who are not business-smart."
No matter how tough the surrounding economic environment sometimes
seems in Michigan, you won't hear a discouraging word from Simon or
his crew.
"When the economy goes down," Simon said, "it's the best thing that
can happen. The weaker companies have to do something or sell out. It
shakes people up."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Aug 26 2007
Hauling fuel helps Atlas get stronger
Gas station supplier thrives on energy and drive
August 26, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
No matter what the state of the economy, or whatever state you call
home, there is always some job that most people refuse to do because
it's too menial or too difficult. Or some task too small or
tangential for the big brains at the giant sophisticated corporations
to bother with.
Sam Simon built a billion-dollar business at Atlas Oil Co. by doing
things that other people and other companies didn't want to do, or do
well, or do anytime of day or night.
Simon, 43, employs 172 people today, up from 80 five years ago, and
will add another 40 or 50 this year. He plans to acquire two
businesses in west Michigan before yearend. And he expects his sales
to top $5 billion by 2015.
Everything Atlas Oil does serves one goal -- moving more gallons of
gasoline, heating oil and other petroleum products. Simon's team buys
and sells real estate, operates a huge truck fleet of more than 100
vehicles, builds gas stations, answers phones with human beings 24
hours a day, seven days a week, all in the service of that one goal.
Moving gallons.
Giant oil companies like ExxonMobil or British Petroleum want to do
only two things -- take oil out of the ground and then refine it --
Simon said in an interview at Atlas headquarters on Ecorse Road in
Taylor.
Everything else is a hassle to the oil giants. That's why none except
Speedway owns its own gas stations in metro Detroit anymore. It's why
companies with big truck fleets like FedEx and Pepsico like dealing
with Atlas, a wholesaler, because Simon and his crew move fast, 24/7,
in any conditions to keep customers supplied with fuel.
On the night before I interviewed Simon, he was e-mailing with his
top lieutenants, Mike Evans and Bob Kenyon until 10:30 p.m., tracking
reports on Hurricane Dean, on the lookout for possible supply
disruptions -- they didn't happen, fortunately -- to customers
overnight.
The son of an Armenian shoe salesman who fled Baghdad in 1973 as
Saddam Hussein rose to power, Simon was 9 years old when his family
landed in Detroit, sleeping on mattresses donated by a local church,
living in the basement of a family on Detroit's east side.
His father took what has become a time-honored entrepreneurial path
for many a Detroit immigrant. He operated and ultimately owned a gas
station, and then multiple gas stations. Sam worked in the family
business from an early age.
"When I was 16," he said, "I was managing 21 people."
At age 21, in 1985, Simon set off on a new path. He bought a Mack
truck and was delivering diesel fuel to 10 or 12 gas stations.
Atlas Oil was born. He chose the name because it conveyed strength
and started with the letter "A," thus being one of the first listings
in the Yellow Pages. He put the distinctive blue-and-orange paint job
on the first truck.
The mission, from day one, was to grow and keep growing. "Grow or
go," Simon says, over and over.
Another core belief: Go first class with everything. Don't skimp. "I
never saw a business grow by cost-cutting," he said. "I hire the best
people, give them the right tools and let them loose. We pay people
more than our competitors, we have better trucks, better systems."
Atlas has grown both organically and by acquisition.
Simon now supplies fuel to more than 300 gas stations in Michigan,
Ohio and Indiana, many of which were built, leased and sold by Simon
to what he calls the ideal operators -- "new Americans, they hustle,
their whole family works in the store, 18 or 20 hours a day." The
first stations were acquired and renovated at the behest of former
Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, who asked Simon in 1987 if he could do
something with two boarded-up stations.
In recent years, Atlas accelerated its growth by purchasing other
wholesalers to expand its geographic reach, such as B&R Oil Co. of
South Bend, Ind. ($135 million in sales), and Seaway Fuels Trucking
of Toledo ($160 million).
Atlas is in the process of opening an office in Houston. It also has
operations in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kentucky.
"We never sleep," said Bob Kenyon, 35, Atlas' vice president of sales
and marketing who joined the firm 10 years ago after stints with
Speedway and Clark Refining.
Michael Evans, 41, executive vice president for business development,
joined Atlas from EDS 11 years ago and has been the point man on
major acquisitions. Simon's "energy, drive and creativity is what
drew me to Atlas and his integrity and approach is what has kept me
here," Evans said.
Simon shrugs off the accolades, assessing himself as a simple guy who
works hard.
"I didn't know anything about the oil business," he said, with just a
trace of the accent that remains from his boyhood in the Middle East.
"There are a lot of book-smart people who are not business-smart."
No matter how tough the surrounding economic environment sometimes
seems in Michigan, you won't hear a discouraging word from Simon or
his crew.
"When the economy goes down," Simon said, "it's the best thing that
can happen. The weaker companies have to do something or sell out. It
shakes people up."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress